Nor would it come close to commanding
global attention on the scale of Spassky-Fischer, a fact which did not
stop the old enemies coming up with their own brand of chess on studs.

Despite rumours circulating around these parts to the contrary, Putin
failed to turn up, rather like the Russian line-out on a night when Mike
Petrie, a native New Yorker from Brooklyn, accounted for the only try
of the match.

It was, by any standard, one of the best of the
tournament hitherto, a sweeping four-man, three-pass move spanning 60
metres.

In the end that made all the difference, enough to put paid to the
Russian's £80,000-a-man bonus for reaching the quarter-finals which was
never going to happen given that Italy, Australia and Ireland are next
up.

On a night of sheeting rain, team manager Kingsley Jones' team won
something money cannot buy.

The unrelenting pride in their performance earned the the admiration of
the locals, a few of whom had gone to the extreme measure of having the
bear emblem tattooed onto their posteriors.

Off the mark: The USA recorded their first win of the tournament

The way skipper Alexander
Voytov marshalled his forces ensured that they achieved the considerable
feat of restricting the Americans to the one try given their
superiority based on their Leeds prop, Mike MacDonald.

Relieved: USA captain Todd Clever

They then staged a grandstand finish which had their opponents so
rattled that their Japanese-based Californian skipper, Todd Clever,
somehow escaped a card of any colour for smashing a not-so-clever elbow
into a Russian face.

'I was very, very nervous,' Clever said of conceded the converted try
which would have cost the Eagles the match. 'Every time we play Russia,
they keep getting better. They're a tough team.'

Of the three Welsh
coaches under Jones' disposal, none did a better job than the one in
charge of the scrum, 36-year-old former Lions prop Darren Morris.

'Everyone ought to be very proud of the team,' Jones said. 'We've come a
long way in a short time.'

After surviving three missed penalties by
Saracens full back Chris Wyles and watching Russia's fly half Yuri
Kushnarev miss three of his own, centre Konstantin Rachkov struck the
late penalty to guarantee the Bears a losing bonus point.